Washington State supplies about two-thirds of the US apple crop. Last year, the state dealt with an exceptionally large apple crop. “It was our largest volume ever,” says Keith Mathews with FirstFruits Marketing of Washington. “About 150 million bushels were harvested that we intended to pack, yet 144 million bushels ended up being shipped.”
Supply more in line with demand
“It is a bit early in the season to discuss the size of this year’s crop as the harvest won’t be done until early to mid-November. However, the general industry guesstimate is a crop of approximately 120 million bushels. The first official estimate will be released at the end of this week,” Mathews added. “It is important to take New York, Michigan and California into account as well. New York has a nice crop while Michigan had a few problems. All in all, the national volume is expected to come down the same percentage as the state of Washington. As a result, supply will be more in line with demand.”
Hail storms and heat
The reason for Washington’s crop expectations to be lower is the fair number of isolated hail storms that affected the crop. In addition, the summer has been really intense. “So far, we had 15-20 days with temperatures above 100⁰F. In a normal season, we only see two or three days with temperatures this high,” mentioned Mathews. It also stayed exceptionally warm at night. “Some regions are better set up to protect their apple crop than others, but part of the crop was affected by heat damage such as sun burn. The warm weather also forces trees to shut down and the apples don’t grow as big,” added Mathews. Washington State has a serious water problem and growers with secondary water rights (orchards that were developed after the 1920s) are not allowed to irrigate as much. This is expected to reduce crop volumes by 15 percent.
Packing line with early Gala
FirstFruits has already started harvesting its Ginger Golden Delicious, which is an earlier apple variety. Mathews expects that the industry will be harvesting Galas, one of the most popular varieties, by August 12.
Please visit us at booth #4166 at the PMA Fresh Summit in Atlanta.
For more information:
Keith Mathews
FirstFruits Marketing of Washington
Tel: (+1) 877-51-APPLE